


it's hard to dance with the devil on your back...

by greyjediamandeep (orphan_account)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Do it, and florence and the machine, dance party, established stormpilot, hints of reylo, i just have a lot of feelings, i just need this, i'm a slut for a ben solo redemption arc, if you don't like the idea of ben solo's redemption, jessika is a pansexual and will fight anyone, there's a magic thing called scrolling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-20 05:58:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5994013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/greyjediamandeep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>...so shake him off.</p><p>"Ben? Are you okay?" Poe asked.<br/>"Not really." Ben replied, dejected. "There was a situation with some of the others."<br/>"Who are they? I'll fight them." Jessika said, clapping her hands together in determination.</p><p>In other words, Ben is having an off day so his friends cheer him up.<br/>Orphaning this work, so long kids remember me</p>
            </blockquote>





	it's hard to dance with the devil on your back...

**Author's Note:**

> I like the idea of the gang cheering up a redeemed Ben after Resistance members holding resentment towards Kylo tell him he doesn't deserve to be accepted. So here's a short little fic about that.  
> Also let's pretend they call our little blue and green planet Terra, shall we?

The sun was setting on the planet of D'Qar and the man was sitting on the open field alone, trying to drown out his thoughts with meditation.  
  
_Why are you here?_  
  
_Why should you be forgiven?_  
  
_It doesn't matter what you call yourself. You'll always be that monster._  
  
He called out for his grandfather, a ghost he once admired for all the wrong reasons, begging him to give him guidance.  
  
"Ben?" A voice called but it wasn't his grandfather but, in fact, his childhood friend. "What are you doing out here?"  
"I was meditating." Ben shrugged out of his pose to greet the two pilots making their way towards him.  
  
One was Poe Dameron, a boy he once played with, running outside his mother's offices with toy ships, one holding their toy and the other levitating theirs. Most of him had stayed the same throughout the years; he was still adventurous for example, in actuality seemed to had gotten worse in Ben's absence. Poe said this was because Ben was 85% of his impulse control. The other was Jessika Pava, a recently aquired friend with a admiration for his uncle's piloting skill. She was also confrontational to a fault, which Ben discovered when someone made a remark about her sexuality in Huttese and she responded by punching them square in the face. She was just as bad as Poe was when it came to her impulse control.  
  
"Why the long face?" Jessika asked. "Oh, wait, that's your normal face." She delivered a beat later, grinning as if she was the funniest person in the vicinity.  
"Original." Ben said dryly, rolling his eyes at the overused joke.  
"Unlike your plan for galactic domination." Jessika quipped and Ben winced, the confrontation he had with a few fellow Resistance members still simmering at the back of his mind. "Okay, something's definitely up. You always have a clapback." Poe was eyeing him, worried.

"Ben? Are you okay?" Poe asked.  
"Not really." Ben replied, dejected. "There was situation this afternoon with a few of the others."  
"Who are they? I'll fight them." Jessika said, clapping her hands together in determination.  
"Jessika _no_."  
"Jessika _yes_ , fuck off Dameron."  
"Jessika _no_." Ben emphasised. "That won't make it any better. And besides," he sat back down on the grass, his hands on his knees. "I deserved what they said to me. And worse."  
"What exactly was said?" Poe asked, falling down next to him while Jessika was on his other side.

 _Why are you here?_  
  
_Why should you be forgiven?_  
  
_It doesn't matter what you call yourself. You'll always be that monster._  
  
"The usual." Ben mumbled.  
"I'm fighting them." Poe fumed, pushing himself up. "After all this time...you've been fighting the darkness for _two fucking years_...and they have the _cheek_ , the _audacity_..."  
"Poe, I don't want you to..."  
"Shut the fuck up." Poe told him. "The _Ben Solo Defense Squad_ is on it."  
"Literally calls us the _Ben Solo Defense Squad_." Jessika was watching Poe pace the grass, excitedly. "There was talk of badges but Finn vetoed it."  
"Who are they?" Poe asked and Ben dropped onto his back, folding his arms stubbornly and keeping his eyes on the darkening sky.  
"I won't tell you a thing."  
"Ben Padmé Solo, you better tell or _so fucking help me_ -"  
"- Your middle name is _Padmé_?" Jessika asked, laughter in her voice.  
"After my grandmother, she was a great leader."  
" _Who are they_?" Poe stressed, bringing them back to the situation at hand.  
"I don't want you to fight them. If I want them beaten, I could've done it myself." Ben said with a sense of finality until his shoulders sagged. "I just want my friends to cheer me up."  
  
"Did you hear that, Jessie?" Poe asked, a teasing element in his tone.  
"I've been telling you not to call me that since I was twenty, Poe." Jessika retorted.  
"Our friend Benny wants us to _cheer him up_." He continued.  
"I let you call me Benny one time and you never let it die." Ben rolled his eyes.  
"We need to cheer up our friend, Jessika. How do you suggest we do that?"  
"I could always dare you to jump over a trashcan again."  
"Fuck you, I could jump over two and you know it."  
"I could always play one of your stupid Terra playlists you always blast over the comms link on long journeys."  
"Fuck y-" Poe stopped and thought for a moment. "Actually that's a good idea. Add a campfire, a few drinks, party for the _Ben Solo Defense Squad_ with Ben _fricking_ Solo as our guest of honour."

  
"I've never danced before." Ben admitted.  
"Fuck off, you've danced. Remember when we put on the whole routine of that musical we watched in front of our families?" Poe's eyes glinted with nostalgia while Ben cringed. It had been one of his favourites, he was so transfixed in the colours and upbeat music that he and Poe had learnt the whole musical off by heart to perform with Lando Calrissian's daughter.  
"Correction: I've never danced _without embarrassing myself_ before." Ben shuddered as he remembered waltzing into the room with Calrissian and tripping, bringing her down with him. There was a twinge of sadness in knowing that their trio was down to two, Calrissian having stated that she might never forgive him for what Kylo did to her family.  
"So dance party it is." Jessika clapped happily excited to get some blackmail on the two men. Although Poe would not care one bit, stating that he owned it.  
  
Rey and Finn was in Poe's suite when the trio fell in.  
"Honey, I'm home!" Poe threw his arms wide, narrowly missing Jessika's nose.  
"Fuck off, Dameron." She said in shock as she dodged his knuckles. "We're having a dance party, get the alcohol and the droid and let's get lit."  
"Okay we will as you never say lit in that context ever again." Rey compromised as she took in Ben.  
  
_Are you okay?_ She asked over the Force Bond they had accidentally formed in another life.

 _I will be._ That's all he'll tell her for now. She nodded and collected Poe's extensive alcohol collection.  
  
"So which shitty playlist will our ears be bleeding to tonight?" Jessika asked.  
"A new one I've compiled." Poe grinned secretively as the music started playing. It wasn't the technobabble he usually listened to but an opera-like tune.  
  
_Regrets collect like old friends_  
_Here to relive your darkest moments_  
  
Poe started moving slowly, in an interpretative sort of way as Ben listened closely to the lyrics.  
  
_All the ghouls come out to play_  
_And every demon wants his pound of flesh_  
  
Jessika started to join in dramatically, not quite serious but not comically either and Finn followed, grabbing Poe's hand as the beat kicks in. Rey stayed sitting next to Ben, looking at him closely as he dissected the lyrics. The other started to move faster, in a tribal way, dancing around the fire as BB-8 beeped to the song.  
  
_But it's always darkest before the dawn_  
_Shake it out, shake it out_  
_Shake it out, shake it out, oh, whoa-oh_  
  
"Figured it out yet, Solo?" Rey asked, full of mirth.  
"Not quite, no." Ben whispered, most of his attention on the song.  
"You will eventually." She patted his hand reassuringly, before joining the dance. Ben continued to watch them, sipping pensively.  
  
_It's hard to dance with the devil on your back_  
_So shake him off_  
_And I am done with my graceless heart_  
_So, tonight, I'm going to cut it out and then restart_  
  
Poe sang along flawlessly as the others spun and clapped. Suddenly it clicked. What Poe was trying to tell him.  
  
_Part of you will always regret what happened and that's okay._  
  
_Not everyone will forgive you and that's okay too._  
  
_You just need to keep going._  
  
_Shake the devil off and restart._  
  
Ben called for his grandfather again for confirmation, watching as he materialised opposite the campfire, smiling proudly.  
  
_Shake the devil off, Ben._ Anakin's voice echoed in his head. _It's hard to dance with him on your back._ Ben nodded in understanding and Anakin disappeared, still grinning at him.  
  
"Are you joining us, loser?" Jessika shouted him as the dance continued.  
  
_Shake the devil off, Ben._  
  
"Well, obviously." He quipped and joined the circle. He took Rey in his arms in glee, spinning and singing as the words came naturally to him. A deeper voice joined in his head, one he knew to be his grandfather.  
  
_And I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't_  
_So here's to drinks in the dark at the end of my road_  
_And I'm ready to suffer and I'm ready to hope_  
_It's a shot in the dark and right at my throat_

He let go of Rey, opting to spinning faster by himself, surrounding by his friends singing loudly around him.  
  
_Looking for heaven for the devil in me_  
_So why the hell am I going to let it happen to me?_  
  
He felt weightless as if he _was_ shaking the devil off. Snoke had been clinging to him for so long, even after he'd been defeated. Now, it felt as if his grip was loose and Ben was moving too fast for him to hold on. As the song ended, he stopped to watch his friends, happy and glowing in the firelight. He felt warm rushing through him as he watched them come to a stop, collasping around the fire, sweaty and breathless as BB-8 brought them their drinks.  
  
He joined them, Rey throwing an arm around him.  
"So how do you feel?" She asked, still panting.  
"Like the devil is finally off my back." He looked at her as she grinned and shook her head, turning back to the group's conversation.

 _You caught on then, Solo?_ She asked through the bond.  
  
_Yeah, I finally did, Kenobi._ He walked over to her and sat by her as the others got back up to dance to the next song. In the shadow of his body cast by the fire, she gripped his hand in her hot one, causing him to jump and smile quietly.  
  
_The dog days are over._

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Songs:  
> Florence and the Machine -  
> Shake It Out  
> The Dog Days Are Over


End file.
